Linda Shannon-Hills and Ed Ehrman, SBR Emergency Preparedness
Last month, SaddleBrooke Ranch had an incident in which it appeared all, or most, cellular service was down for a period of time. Apparently it also affected CenturyLink Wi/Fi internet and maybe Orbital.
The question was asked, “When something like this happens, what is the impact on PENS notifications?
The following is a response from Kore Redden from Pinal County Office of Emergency Management:
“When there is a cellular outage, PENS (Pinal Emergency Notification System) can still send alerts. We can monitor what is going through on the system. If we see any failure points, then we would send out a special wireless emergency alert that works the same as the 911 system. As part of an FCC mandate, the 911 system will still work in this situation because it will go to the next available cell phone tower to keep emergency communications available.
Additionally, if someone has a conventional landline phone, it will remain operable during a Wi-Fi and cell phone tower outage. Residents can register their landline with PENS along with their cell service and receive mass notifications via this route too.
Last, if the outage was for an extensive period of time, we would dispatch portable cell phone towers to cover an affected area.”